The Curse
by DefendTheUndefended
Summary: Ace was born with a curse. A curse to see death. He hated it. It took people he loved away. But as he gets older, the curse seems to grow. Is it just a curse? Is it still a bad thing when it helps him save the life of a friend?
1. 1.) Sight

1.) Sight

Somehow, Ace knew what it was the first time he saw it.

It was a blackness. It crawled across people's skin like a sentient ooze, a festering wound or disease.

It was birthed from the shadows that followed their feet and clawed its way to their heads. Curled across their faces until nothing but their eyes was left. Then. Finally when their eyes were swallowed up.. they'd die. By gunshot, by disease, by old age, by drowning. Any way they'd die it'd always be timed exactly by the blackness.

Because that's what it was.

It was death.

Be it death itself, death's presence, their life being drained out of them, or something more innocent such as a timer, it didn't matter. All Ace knew was that the blackness meant death.

And somehow.. he could see it.

Maybe what they said was true.

He was a demon... after all it wasn't normal to see death.

Or maybe since he wasn't supposed to be born, that's why..


	2. 2.) The World Grew Darker

2.) The World Grew Darker

Ace had learned to live with the occasional blackness that would swallow the people around him.

It was a man in the Gray Terminal that let him find out how long it'd take for the blackness to finish consuming its victim before they died.

A month.

A month went by that the man went oblivious to his oncoming death. A month went by from start to finish that the man had been unaware that his life was about to cut short.

The man didn't believe him when he tried to warn him. Ace had hoped if he could tell the man that he was in danger that he'd live, only to be smacked for it. The man brushed him off, yelling and hitting Ace for insinuating something so sinister. An 6 year old Ace had admittedly been unnerved at the anger radiating off the man who looked, to him, like he was constantly under a dark shadow with glowing white eyes.

He died two days later from a mugger and Ace ran.

His world turned dark. He had thought that maybe with the possibility of warning him he could save people with his ability. When he was proved wrong... he felt like nothing but a monster.

It was almost half a year later that Sabo appeared.

Sabo.. he was like a soothing balm on an aching wound.

He chased some of the darkness away with his plans of setting out to sea, becoming a pirate.. just like Ace himself wanted.

They bonded over their dreams and finally Ace had something to divert his mind from the swirling darkness in his own mind that so often yelled out accusations that he was a monster, a demon, an abomination- a freak that didn't deserve to be born.

Sabo wasn't able to chase those thoughts away, Ace knew that Sabo could live without him, Sabo could complete his dreams on his own. Sabo didn't need him.

Sabo helped his days be brighter, made him have hope to be free in the future. To be great and step out from the shadow of one of two curses he possessed. To be free of the name of his monster father, the DNA in his blood that so often felt like chains.

He had a secret dream as well, thought up during the late nights he couldn't sleep like the blonde beside him. Staring up at the stars and letting his thoughts wander.

He didn't want to put too much o his hope in the possibility. But.. another dream was birthed in his heart one of those nights.

Maybe.. just maybe.. he might be able to get rid of both his curses on those seas.

Then, the final piece to lock away his personal darkness crashed into his life in the form of a rubbery ball of sunshine in a seven year old boy.

Luffy was.. almost overbearing..

After they saved the boy that so often tried to follow Ace, who just thought he did it to annoy, there was no way the boy wanted anything to do with him, and the sentiment was returned, from dying by Bluejam is when Ace's life world was shifted.

Luffy needed him. Wanted him. Loved him. For no reason at all. He wasn't using him for his own benefit he honestly just wanted Ace's attention. Ace's companionship.

His darkness could never be truly erased but Luffy took hold of it with his smile, locked it in a cage with his persistence, and sealed it closed with his promises and hugs.

Ace never wanted to let these two go.

So he found a way for them to become closer.

Brothers.

He took up the title with pride and wore it like a badge of honor. Hiding away how it made him feel with brashness and brawling with Luffy, who knew it was Ace's way of saying he loved him.

Ace fell into a habit of falling beside Sabo in taking care of their youngest. And relished the bickering and competitions to one each other up between them.

Then.. it came crashing when shadows started to creep up Sabo's legs.

Sabo noticed his behavior before Luffy. How Ace would stare near his feet with wide eyes and would be more jumpy and paranoid.

He didn't say a word until Ace started suggesting Sabo stay in their treehouse instead of leaving to help with their daily activities.

Ace hadn't known what to say when Sabo confronted him about his behavior. He brushed it off and yelled at Sabo trying to get him to back off. Luffy had been asleep at that point after a long day of hunting and didn't twitch an inch at the raised voices.

It didn't change much and by the end of it both boys were hurt and stayed quieter than normal the next morning.

At the end of that day the darkness had reached Sabo's chest and Sabo had been taken from them.

So much happened right after that and Ace occupied himself with protecting Luffy. That didn't mean he wanted to run into High Town and protect his other brother the best he could as his death approached. He didn't want to loose Sabo. He couldn't. He couldn't loose him!

But..

He did.

He had the thought once that Sabo was his moon and Luffy his sun. Sabo lit a path in his darkness, let him survive the abyss instead of stumbling around as nothing, not even a since of purpose, graced him. Luffy joined Ace's world as his sun and lit the universe up with light so bright Ace felt invincible and freed. Like he could fly.

And with Sabo's death.. Ace lost his moon.

And with his moon gone.. the world felt darker.


	3. 3.) Recede

3.) Recede

Ace was more wry and cautious of the world after Sabo died.

He no longer felt invincible, as he no longer had both his brothers at his side. He was more cautious, more calculating of his actions, but this didn't mean he was exempt from letting his emotions affect or control his actions.

The fights with Luffy got more frequent. Ace unable to process his own crushing grief for Sabo properly, as no one close to him had died before now. And Luffy, who tried to cling to Ace for comfort had been pushed away a fraction and lashed at Ace for it.

They fought, never addressing the true reason for their actions, and they separated for awhile.

Because of that, because Ace hasn't been close, he never noticed the shadows start licking at Luffy's ankles.

When the bear attacked Luffy Ace had been horrified to see Luffy covered up to his neck chin in shadows and had panicked. He already lost one brother he couldn't loose the second as well, and had acted more scared than he ever had been.

He had rushed Luffy back to the bandits hideout. Desperate to try and save Luffy even though he knew it was helpless. The closer to the eyes the shadows got the quicker it moved. And Ace knew.

Death was inevitable.

He had cried, begged, pleaded and apologized to Luffy. He knew Luffy was about to die but he didn't want to loose him, and all he could do was beg cry and scream for Luffy to be okay. But he knew Luffy would never be.

The cage in his soul cracked and spiderweb cracks spread across it. Voices that it was his fault Luffy was about to die, that he only caused pain and death, rung in his head and he didn't try to push them back. Accepting them as truth and yelling his apologies to Luffy even louder.

Then something astonishing happened. Something that stopped Ace's wailing for the first time since Luffy was hurt.

The shadows started to recede.

They glided over Luffy's body back down to his feet as Dadan declared that Luffy's fever broke.

Ace didn't know what it meant but he scrambled over to his baby brother and held as tight as he could to Luffy's hand feeling it retract in size slightly at his grip. Afraid that if he let go the shadows would eat Luffy again.

The next morning Luffy awoke, and Ace vowed to never leave his brother's side, at least until he knew for sure that Luffy could survive anything thrown at him.

Ace wasn't sure what happened, but somehow his sunshine was safe. And he'd make sure he stayed that way.

He trained Luffy, made sure Luffy could actually defend himself. Their bond grew stronger and Ace relished it.

Luffy helped him ignore the pain of the shadows he could see crawling over people they passed. Luffy drove away his darkness. Luffy was precious. And he did his best to make sure he was protected because of it.

Then the time came for him to fulfill his promise of setting off at 17. He couldn't let Sabo down in that aspect.

So with one last reassurance that Luffy would be strong enough to protect himself he set out.


	4. 4.) Something Good?

4.) Something Good?

It didn't take him long to form his own crew, even earn himself his own reputation.

It was during a fight with marines that Ace found out exactly what else his curse could do.

His first mate had been shot at the time. He had seen the shadows start to twist up the man's legs and had made sure to stick closer by him for that reason.

The marines had attacked them out of no where. Their ship being bombarded with cannonballs and boarded without permission as soldiers attacked. The Spade pirates were quick to rise to the occasion and retaliated in no time flat.. but.. in all the chaos Ace lost sight of his first mate.

It was only after Ace lit the marine ship on fire, all the marine attackers were off his ship, and they had started to sail away did he notice that his first mate wasn't celebrating on deck with the others.

He asked his crewmate's whereabouts and shot to the infirmary in a burst of fire.

His first mate had been lying on the bed, the ship doctor desperately working to help him, and breathing weakly in short uneven gasps.

Ace had stared pain springing in his gut as he had failed someone else again.

He had slowly walked forward as the doctor sadly gave into defeat and slid down the wall behind him, he stared at his first mate. Eyeing the shadows steadily creeping across his face and towards his eyes.

He could almost count the seconds it would take for the shadows to reach their target and claim another victim.

He didn't want his first mate to feel alone in his last moments so he took hold on the man's hand.

A second later his own breathing stopped as he saw the shadows freeze in place.

Something.. lulled inside him, like a wave shifting and he gasped at the uncomfortableness of it, a breaking feeling ran across his chest a moment later and his hand tightened slightly in his fist mate's.

It felt like another limb reached out from his hand into their conjoined ones and towards the man's unbeating heart.

He instinctively moved his hand on top of were the phantom limb felt like it should be, and with the invisible appendage, pulled.

He watched with wide eyes, as the shadows rapidly decreased from the man's face and feet simultaneously and collected around Ace's hand still placed on the other's chest.

His eyes went wider and a flash of fear ran through him as the shadows started to crawl up his own arm, coving his fingers and wrist and working its way up farther. His arm felt paralyzed and as it moved up so did more and more of his body.

He final thread of shadows snapped away from his first mate and into his skin and he snapped away from the other as if he had been thrown.

The gunshot on his first mate had been in his abdomen and Ace yelled out as a ripping pain suddenly cut through the same area his cremate had been hurt and his threw a hand over it instinctively. He was met with wetness and he dazedly pulled it away from him and stared at his red coated fingers for a moment.

He heard a sharp and harsh gasp and he glanced up to see his first mate had taken a sharp gasp and arched off the bed. His first mate blinked dazed at the ceiling before sitting up, looking down at his would be wound to only see a sealed over scar. He looked to Ace with wide eyes.

Ace saw the man's mouth move but he heard nothing come out as his vision went black and he fell.


End file.
